A: The current bull market, coming off the lows of March 2009, is one of the most hated in history.

Investors don't trust the rally, saying it's artificially propped up by the Federal Reserve boosting the availability of money and holding interest rates down. Others see the market as rising too much, too fast and figure that the inevitable correction is coming. Such fears might hold back an investor from putting money into a 401(k), individual retirement account or otherwise save for retirement.

Such fear is understandable, but very counterproductive when it comes to investing for retirement. Unless you're in your late 50s or 60s, retirement is a very long-range goal. Year-to-year turbulence is barely noticeable when looking at the long-term track record of investments, which is what is the important part to focus on.

In fact, in a perfect world a person investing for retirement would want the stock market to be flat or falling while working and making contributions, and then rally while in retirement. That way, at the lower prices, the investor can accumulate more shares.

Even if the market were to fall into a bear market, those aren't usually bad enough to kill an investors' retirement fund as long as they don't panic. The average bear market in the Standard & Poor's 500 since 1929 has only lasted 379 days, says The Stock Trader's Almanac. Bear markets are an annoyance for sure, but not long enough to do serious damage to investors with the right portfolios.